If some of our verses of Scripture
sound really familiar this morning, it’s because we’ve had a bit of an overlap
between this week and last. Last week we
ended with the verses telling us of how God had told Samuel how it was
essentially ‘fine with him’ to go ahead and listen to what the people wanted
and to appoint a human king, and that what the people were rejecting was God
himself, not the judgement, wisdom and leadership
of Samuel. Last week we talked about how
Samuel became Israel’s head judge and then how he was able to really restore
the nation of Israel back to God by having people realize from just actually
where their provisions come, and that truly, God was and is the great adoring
parent of humanity, and that it truly is ONLY God that deserves our undying
faith.

But then you may remember that the
people started to change, to kind of drift off, AGAIN, as they always do. You know it’s amazing the prioritizing
thoughts that run through a person’s head when their challenged verses what
goes through their head and how they act when they feel like everything is
generally going their way, when maybe they have just about all of the creature
comforts they basically want to make their existence seem comfortable. Comfortability usually pulls people away from
God, while challenge in this life usually, but not always, but usually draws
them nearer to their Creator. It’s just
the way it’s always been and probably always will be.

But so, now this week we’re
beginning with last week’s ending verses and continuing on to see that yes the
Israelites start changing, they’re getting comfortable, nobody is attacking
them on regular intervals, they start thinking that their God really isn’t all
that important to them, that truly – only they are really in charge of their
own destinies. And then on top of all of
that, the Israelite leadership begin believing that Samuel’s sons, who
traditionally would take over from him after he dies, can’t take over from
Samuel the way they’re looking for their leadership to be. And really, in many ways, they are justified
in thinking and feeling that way.
According to the storyline, Samuel’s sons in many ways do end-up being
similar to Eli’s sons; pretty corrupt and certainly not being faithful to the
God that had provided their positions to them.
So instead, the Israelites justifiably want someone who’s fair and just,
someone who’s a servant and a leader all in one. They’re happy with Samuel, but they don’t
trust his sons, and in essence, this means that they’re not trusting in God to
either change or replace these children of Samuel as their leadership. And on top of it too, they decide that they
don’t want to have to be going through with this finding of a new leader every couple
generations or so, they don’t want to be put into a situation in which they
might feel like they’re sinking backward.
So what do they conclude? A ha,
we’ll get a king, a king is not like a judge, a monarch is a god on earth, and
then we’ll be as strong and as responsibly led as all the neighboring peoples
that we see living around us. A king has
greater authority than a judge ever thought about having, a king truly is
connected to God.

Now I know that this is something
that makes us here in the US literally scoff, at least just a bit, but do
realize that really just up until the last one or two hundred years or so, but
that for the four thousand years before, that kings and queens were solidly
believed to be directly lineaged from God himself, and this really was a common
thought amongst peoples around the world in regard to their monarchs. For us our best and most recent example could
be taken from seventy-five years ago with Emperor Hirohito in Japan, think
about how the Japanese believed of him.
Many of the Japanese people completely believed that he was a god on
earth. And then maybe closer to home for
us sitting here, the English felt the same exact way about their King George;
the King George who reigned at the time of the American Revolution. He was believed to be very similar to the
biblical David; appointed by and representing God himself, and the proof was in
the fact that England was an empire where the sun never set. Look it up in the history books, it’s all
pretty fascinating stuff. And I will
toss one more example in there to think about, ..how is it that the pope has
traditionally been looked at in the Catholic Church? I know growing-up I was always told that the
pope is God’s representative on earth, having a direct line of communication
with the Amighty. It’s a very similar
thought and belief that has been carried down through the millennia.

But to get back to where we left off
with the Israelites, they want to have this type of human leadership, instead
of just a judge who tells them what to do.
And remember, a king will essentially be God on earth for them, he’ll
provide and take care of them, protect them, just like all good kings do. It is in this more human king that they feel
their faith must be put, they can see a human king and have a human king speak
to them so that they can all literally hear.

God basically says, “Okay, let’s
give them what they want. BUT, make sure
they realize that a king from amongst themselves is not going to protect or
provide for them the way I do. They
don’t want me, okay fine.” ..You know,
I’m well aware that I’m about to repeat myself, or at least repeat an idea, but
I just have to; ‘it’s always so easy for us to lose sight of our real needs
when suddenly we’re feeling comfortable and secure’, we think we suddenly know
it all and no one can tell us. Man, we
do have short memories…

And God very specifically warns His
people, ..that warning is almost half of our reading. And I won’t re-read those verses, but just
the main points God gives are; you’re going to be drafted into the king’s army,
you’ll have to essentially pledge your allegiance to him instead of to me your
creator God, you’ll have to give a human monarch of the labors that you work so
long and hard for, and it won’t be you deciding what to give, the king will
take the best of what you have and leave you with the weakest and worst. The populace will be made into essential
servants for the king. And your children
will be taken from you; your sons to be soldiers and your daughters for
whatever the king decides for them. And
these words of wisdom are not just words of wisdom or advice from God, but
they’re easily seen to be the case from those who live as their neighbors, this
was often the way a king would rule…and always has. But none of that seems to matter, because
it’s a king that they want.

You know, I don’t ever believe that
politics are something to be put forth from the church pulpit on a Sunday
morning, unless there’s a real connection to a very human justice topic. That I have done before to a certain
extent. But I’ve been here now for four
and a half years, speaking to you every single Sunday except for literally a
couple Sundays each year, and I’ve always practiced that belief. But I have to tell you that with the election
that’s playing out on our televisions right now in front of us, I’m really
worried about our society, scared even, and what’s so crazy is that we just seem
to be never, ever learning from the history that we’ve made to be our own
story. We as our US society in
particular seem to me to be so mirrored right now in our biblical verses for
this morning in how it was that the Israelites were acting when demanding a
king. They were essentially in a very
comfortable position and situation at that time. There were no wars, food was plentiful, trade
was happening between all of the peoples that lived in the region, there was a
sense of freedom that the people had gotten very comfortable with. Things were generally considered to be pretty
good. And granted they didn’t have
electronics or even electric, but that’s all relative. The bottom line was that people were
comfortable and didn’t see anything as responsible for that sense and reality
of comfort except for themselves. God
was not an important part of their picture, God was an after thought for most
all of he people, and for us..for us, are we really any different? And let’s not try to say that things are so
difficult here in our country, go to an actually poor country in our world and
see how people really live, it’s not like here.
Are there poor, are there stranded people here, yes, that’s everywhere,
but the majority live an essentially pretty comfortable life, we as a society
really are a bunch of spoiled children.

And we often talk about God and religion ad nausium in our
society, yet I find that it’s few and far in between that actually practice
what it is that we preach. We turn on
our televisions and have the likes of Jim Bakker selling his latest wares and
laughing all the way to the bank, we have a large portion of our society that
insists that they’re the definition of Christian, but then they want to ban
certain groups and peoples from being given the privilege of being in our
presence, many insist on having as many guns as their bank accounts can muster,
they’ll demand that we be able to put people to death for criminal acts, and
then will turn around in the same breath and try to claim to be pro-life. And then I turn on my television yesterday
morning and see the insanity that continues to break out at political rallies
and I can’t help but to wonder if this is how the Israelites were rallying when
calling for a king. What I see on my
television are large groups of people completely and utterly bypassing any of
the thought they try to claim to have when it comes to their supposedly
Christian upbringing. They’re shouting,
“We need someone strong to lead us!, We need someone that will protect us!, We
need someone to show the rest of the world that they can’t mess with us!” And really, I couldn’t care less where you
may fall on the silly party lines that exist, but is this healthy or necessary
on any level? This type of thing has
happened before, ..when will we learn our lesson on how to be with each
other? When will we learn that we
already have a king, a king who is Jesus Christ, and that we need to have some
faith and that we need to live Christ’s lessons that he taught, lessons that
clearly we seem to forget about when it’s convenient?

This past Wed. at the Lenten service, I was sharing from
Matthew 6 and 7, and the final verse that I read was “Do unto others as you
would have done for yourself, it is this commandment that all the law of the
prophets rest.” Should we discuss, should
we strive for intelligent and responsible leadership of our nations, yes we
should, it’s utterly necessary. But we
already have a king, maybe what needs to really happen is that we need to grow
up and start acting like the people that we most often claim to be. Perhaps in an effort to be a bit prophetic,
I’m sure that God is not very impressed with us right now.